Page 2 of So Wicked

Dr. Perth reminded Faith of yet another frustrating trait by looking over her glasses at her in the matronly way an old teacher might. Faith rolled her eyes and said, “I’m angry, yes, and I’m grieving his loss. But I haveaccomplishedquite a lot while angry and grieving.”

Dr. Perth shifted in her chair again.Come on. You’re going to disagree withthat?

“We’ve agreed in our previous sessions that your insistence on returning to work after the Trammell incident and again after West’s abuse of you was detrimental to your performance and wellbeing. Do you disagree with that conclusion now?”

Faith sighed. “No. But this is different.”

Dr. Perth did a passable job of hiding the expression that said she’d heard that many times from many patients and each of them had been wrong. If Faith hadn’t been a twelve-year veteran of the FBI, she might not have seen through Dr. Perth’s sympathetic smile.

But shewasa twelve-year veteran, and shehadbrought dozens of killers to justice. Even when suffering from grief and anger.

“Maybe it’s not different,” she backtracked, “But I’ve shown that I’m capable of functioning even when I’m not at a hundred percent.”

“Do you trust your fellow agents?”

Faith lifted her hands and let them drop. “Yes, I trust my fellow agents. Yes, I think they will catch this killer eventually. Yes, I understand that the ‘right’ thing to do is to stay out of it. I’m too close to the case. I’m still suffering psychologically from Trammell’s attempted murder of me and West’s mental and emotional torment. The Boss—SAC Monroe—was my friend and a mentor and not just my superior, and I’m mourning his loss. All of that is true, but you know what else is true? I’m the best agent in the Field Office at hunting these kinds of killers.”

“I say this gently, but—”

“You don’t have to be gentle.”

Dr. Perth nodded. “All right. That was a very arrogant statement you just made.”

“That doesn't make it untrue. Killers manifest in different ways. Most serial killers don’t try to advertise their murders; they try to conceal them. Most of them target people in their extended social circle—not friends or neighbors, but residents of the same community or members of the same social group: church, school, business, et cetera. Some of them have a type and arrange to be near the people they target. Some of them are drifters who kill opportunistically. There are agents who specialize in hunting those killers. Desrouleaux, the lead agent on the Messenger case, is excellent at hunting the type who arrange to be near their preferred targets. Think Bundy, Gacy and Dahmer. He’s probably better than I am at those cases.”

“And you don’t feel the Messenger has arranged to be near his preferred targets?”

“Yes, but he doesn’t operate the same way other killers do. He’s not burying his bodies or dumping them somewhere people could see him. No weird smells are going to emanate from his house. He’s not going to hang out with people and then suddenly those people disappear from his life.”

“So he’s not going to leave the same clues.”

“Yes! Exactly. He’s highly ritualistic, which isn’t exactly unusual among serial killers,butwhatisunusual is the way he displays his kills. He's a show-off. He wants people to see his victims, know why he killed them, and be afraid that more people will die if the goal he's created in his mind isn't achieved."

“So he’s more like West.”

Faith sighed. “No. Well, yes. Sort of. West is a show off, but he doesn’t—didn’t—have a point beyond wanting people to view him as a god. There’s no moral there.”

“Is that why it was so difficult for you to find him?”

Faith stiffened. Her lips thinned, and she looked away from Mr. Perth.

“I didn’t mean to offend you,” Perth said. Somehow, she managed to make her damned apology sympathetic too. “But I have to point out that your reaction to that question supports my point that you’re not in the right emotional state to hunt this new killer. I’m not an FBI agent, and I won’t pretend that I understand firsthand the stress you endure, but Iamendorsed by the FBI to determine if their agents are fit for duty.”

“And I’m not fit for duty.”

“No. Not right now. I’m sorry, Faith.”

Faith nodded. Then she stood abruptly. “Okay. Thank you. I’ll see you next week.”

“We still have fifteen minutes left.”

Use them to go screw yourself.She was able to stifle those words and instead said, “I’m not in the mood to talk right now.”

“Wewillhave to talk through this, Faith, if I’m to ever give you a clean bill of health.”

Faith stifled another insult. “Well. Not today.”

Dr. Perth lowered her gaze and pursed her lips. That was a sign of extreme disapproval. One day, someone would have to compare the training of psychologists and librarians and determine at what point, if any, they diverged from each other.

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